Tuesday, November 4, 2008

New, Revised and Much Improved: The Bureau of Labor Statistics Webpage

Prices, productivity, unemployment, earnings – the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has provided data on a host of economic issues relating to employment and unemployment for years. A newly updated webpage now makes that data much easier to find and retrieve. The webpage highlights reports from the department’s surveys such as the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the Current Population Survey. Need to find hourly or annual wages by occupation? Try Occupational Employment Statistics to find out the median income for accountants at both national and state levels. While you’re at it, check the Occupational Outlook Handbook to find out the demand for accountants over the next few years. Employment of accountants and auditors is expected to grow by 18 percent between 2006 and 2016, which is faster than the average for all occupations.

The BLS has always monitored consumer and producer prices. Use the inflation calculator to see how much today’s dollar would have purchased in 1990 or check out the inflation rate by region. It‘s not too comforting to find out the average price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline was $1.412 in July 2002 and $4.09 in July 2008.

Subscribe to the BLS Economic News Releases via e-mail to receive the news releases as soon as they are available. Interactive tables with online tutorials help researchers customize data. The BLS also provides detailed information on how data for the various indices and their components are defined, collected and analyzed. The Bureau’s commitment to educating the public is clear from the tutorials, lists of FAQs, glossary and details on its research methodologies - all accessible from the www.bls.gov.